Minit is an enjoyable twist on adventure games where you have only a minute before your character dies. You will find yourself trying to quickly meet all the quirky characters and solve all the puzzles as fast as possible as you try to lift the curse of dying every 60 seconds. Minit was quite a surprise but how does it stack up to other indie titles? Let’s dive in.

Time to venture into the great unknown!

Story and Gameplay 9/10

Minit’s story is basically that there’s a curse on you and you will die every 60 seconds until it is lifted. As simplified as that sounds it’s a great concept and is used amazingly in this game. It’s basically a game version of the song “If I could turn back time, I would find a way.” As you find items and solve puzzles as you die again and again to the point where helping someone find their wallet or kill 5 crabs becomes an enormous task. While the minit to minit (Pun counter x 2) experience may look repetitive it doesn’t feel that way to the player. These simple task have such an adrenaline rush as you try to finish them before the curse ends your tiny little baby duck…platypus….creature with long mouth’s life. I found myself the second I re-spawned running to where I just was to try and complete my task that much faster. It’s a well-designed game with plenty to do.

I felt like Link if time wasn’t on his side and the hero of time had the tables turned on him like in Majora’s mask but to a much higher extend. From beginning to end I didn’t really mind dying. The game would have been incredibly simple without it and I think the developers designed it that way. The top down experience has everything unneeded stripped away so your rush to the next item/puzzle completion doesn’t get interrupted by you taking in the view. The best part about this game is that it doesn’t really tell you where to go or what to do. You can collect upgrades in the form of items along the way including, the glove which lets you throw your sword, the watering can which puts out flames, the speed shoes which make you run faster, or coffee to help you move blocks. This game was an absolute joy to play and I can’t wait to try my hands (Pun counter x 3) at getting every achievement.

This old man had me laughing

Graphics 8/10

As said before everything that isn’t necessary was stripped away for this game but that doesn’t stop it from have a unique of loving look. I personally found the developer did an amazing job giving life and personality to just a small amount of black and white pixels. It may not be the best looking game in the world but for a 16 bit game? It looks fantastic. Every single character that you meet on your journey looks unique, every puzzle is different, and to some extend every area. Of course enemies, trees, and other environmental objects are used over and over again but all the cabins, characters, caves, and others break the gameplay up enough where it doesn’t matter.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room though. This is a 16 bit game, and therefore everything will look lackluster to some players. Although I found it nostalgic and innovative others will find it repetitive and hard to look at. I’m explaining this hear so you understand why I gave it the score I did. For what they were going for the game really can’t look any better than it does, hence the high score it got here.

Can you fill the hotel with all the guests?

Sound 6/10
Minit’s soundtrack is a quite small. Somehow though, like everything else in this game, it works. Each individual track packs polish and a cutesy retro aesthetic, and a few even supply a surprising touch of natural sound, making for a solid album of hybrid chiptune music. It’s quite the accomplishment for such a small team (4 people) and you can tell everyone took their time at every aspect of this game including here. They wanted that old Zelda/arcade feel and that’s exactly what you get here. Although when there is music it is amazing but the zone’s with a lack of music made them feel that much more pointless then those that did despite their being important items there. If they had just spend a little more time and added an overarching track for when your roaming around you are looking at a much higher score.

I wonder if out duck/platypus feels bad for this little guy?

Difficulty 5/10
Although the game sounds unforgiving and difficult, it’s really not. Everything can be found within 3-4 hours and that’s if you’re turning over every rock in this game. I had the final boss beaten with an hour and a half and to my surprise only half of the items, hearts, and coins available in the entire game. There is only one boss fight in the whole game and if you die that boss starts with how much hit points he had when you died there’s nothing really of a challenge here. It may take a couple of tries but the boss was beaten after just a couple of minites (Pun counter x 4).

Please sir can I have some shoes for my webbed feet?

Achievements 10/10
That’s right ladies and gentlemen a perfect score. Take note AAA developers this is how you do achievements. Of course you have your achievements for collecting all the items, all the hearts, all the tentacles, and all the coins. However there is a number of miscellaneous achievements that make this list shine. Three of the most notable ones have to be listen to the old man on the pier, water your dog, and change the music on the jukebox so the one guy in the café dances. I mean the old man on the dock was super funny as he takes forever (40 seconds but when you’re on a 60 second timer it might as well be forever) to tell you where one treasure is. I have named him the grandfather clock since he is such an old timer (Pun Counter x 5) and although he was useful in finding a really hard treasure it was cracking up when I saw how slow he talked. The one to water a dog was a secret achievement but none the less was a cool little entry into the list that got your pet watchdog (Pun Counter x 6) a nice shower.

There was such a nice assortment of achievements here that I won’t mind doing them all. Excellent job.

Snakes? Why did it have to be snakes?

Summary
While our little duck/platapus thing will be waking up at the quack of dawn (Pun Counter x 7)multiple times as you die repeatedly on this adventure, it is well worth the time. It’s a unique adventure that somehow someway leaves a little piece of it with you even after you have beaten it. Minit was a joy of a game that honestly deservers a playthrough even for the most casual of gamers.

Mr flawless, A.K.A Christopher Reger, is the head newshound for Xbox Resource, he is an avid achievement hunter and lover of all things Spiderman.
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